Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-24
THE HABITS OF ELK.
What Western Hunter Has Observed.
Cow Elk and Calf.

New York sun.
The habits Of elk are similar to those
OF deer, but they are much larger ami
mails Cows that are in good condition
dress $50 pounds, and fat bulls dress
about $50 pounds. have heard of bulls
that dressed COO pounds, but never saw
so large an elk, and have seen hundreds
of them. In September the calves dress
from eighty to 100 pounds. Their meat
is tender, but tasteless and veal-like. A
fat two-year-old elk heifer is probably the
best meat on earth. at least think SO.
The COWS are good eating, but inferior to
black-tailed deer. The bulls are rather
tough at all times, and their meat is IN
worthy of being cooked during the rutting
season.
Shortly after the rutting season the
necks of the full Intlered bulls begin to
swell and grow hard. Then it requires
an exceedingly hard-shooting rifle TO drive
a ball through their neckS. | saw, while
on this hunt, four bulls shot low down
on the neck, and in no instance did the
ball pass through, and In no case did it
strike the neck bone. In all instances 1t
lodged under the skin, on the opposite
side from the hunter. We used 44-6O
Winchesters, the latter figures expressing
the number OF grains OF powder burned
behind the ball. This rifle will throw q
ball through an elk or through bear
from side TO side, but 1t Will not carry
through an elk's neck.
Bull elk drop their autlers in January
generally, but this, suppose depends on
the latitude in which they live. bull is
full artlered wnen he is three years old,
on,
Sometimes the anters "spOrt," as corn
does, and the horns take queer shapes.
This is a very serious disaster to the elk,
as he cannot fight effectively with
"sported" antlers, and he is driven out of
the band. l have a set of antlers,
"sports," which have thirteen prongs on
each horn. The bull that wore these
heavy, useless antlers spent the season
in seclusion. He could not fight.
One of the most remarkable spectacles
in the pine-clad highlands is to see full
antlered bull elk trot at speed through
forest where the trees stand so thick
that horse has to slowly pick its way.
| have frequently seen an elk bull, whose
spread of sntlers was at least four feet,
dash at full speed through belt OF tim
Der where | could not follow on horse
back, because the trees were too close to-
gether, aud ne did not strike TIE with
his antlers. -.
When COW elk is killed her calf will
run off to hide in the woods. But it Will
frequently return to the place where its
mother fell, and it often pays for It's
hungry search with its life. | shot
fat COW one morning, and saw two calves |
not far from her. When the rifle cracked |
the calves disappeared. That night l
mentioned the fact OF the calves running
off to nv comrade. He said "If you
will 90 there tomorrow morning you
will probably ind both Of the calves
SHOPPING around in the woods nesr the
dead cow. They will be hungry by
that time, and they will return to their
dead mother to get drink of milk. The
two calves will Just make out our wagon
load of meat. You had better go and
Kill them"
went back the next morning. The
two beautiful, graceful calves stood oy